DOI Project # NE011: Muddy Creek Wetland Restoration Project, Chatham, MA -- Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game ¿ Division of Ecological Restoration (MADER). This announcement is for notification purposes only. The intent of the award is to replace existing undersized culverts at a MA Rte. 28 road crossing over Muddy Creek in the towns of Chatham and Harwich, Barnstable County, MA to restore natural tidal flow and estuarine habitats, improve water quality, enhance fish passage, and reduce the flood risk to public and private infrastructure during future storm events. This award is issued to provide financial assistance to collaboratively-developed priority projects in Hurricane Sandy disaster areas that will restore environmental resources and reduce flood hazards through collaborative efforts with local communities. The project is expected to improve flood resiliency, restore ecosystem function, provide fish and wildlife habitat, provide fish passage, reduce potential flood damage, and increase public safety. Flood resiliency will be obtained by replacing two aging, obsolete stone culverts with a properly sized bridge span, thereby reducing the risk of catastrophic culvert and road failure and the potential for the uncontrolled release of storm surge waters and sediment that would cause damage upstream and downstream of the road crossing. Additionally, greater tidal exchange will improve water quality, enhance fish passage, and restore conditions that will promote the restoration of salt marsh vegetation landward of the tidal restriction. Ecosystem function will be achieved by restoring conditions that will allow a tidal creek system to develop that is in dynamic equilibrium with future changes in coastal hydrology, thereby providing habitat resiliency for potential impacts to fish and wildlife habitats. The Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game - MADER is the recipient of this award due to their unique qualification to complete the project. This project is authorized by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, Public Law 113-2.